Presentation by Amanda McDonald Crowley, Director, ANAT.“The artists whose work I addressed in “Interactive Nation” as part of the Deep Screen Diving program of the ICA organised by Lisa Haskell are about as diverse as electronic art practice itself. In the presentation I wove a slightly convoluted pathway exploring notions of the body, representation and of how this relates to electronic art practices and changing notions of communities – both local and global – brought about through artists use of “new” technologies through the discussion.

In online discussions with Lisa Haskell, who invited me to present the work of some Australian artists working in interactive media as part of the Deep Screen Diving program, we talked about her perception of recurring themes of the body, feminism and an anti humanist approach in Australian work as exemplified by the work of artists who were familiar to the ICA audience such as Linda Dement whose extraordinary interactive works have done much to interrogate the body, representation of women and feminism and VNS Matrix, whose cyberfeminist strategies identify and modify how feminism(s) are viewed in contemporary interactive media discourse both within Australia and internationally.

So I did not talk about the work of these artists! And in fact, whilst I focused on the body and representation, I did not really address feminist discourse, except in as far as feminism has strongly influenced discourses surrounding sexual politics and representation. I would also suggest that much of the work shown as part of the presentation is in fact strongly humanist rather than anti humanist in approach …

In the selection of work, I veered away from the notion that interactive art is only the much hyped CD Rom or internet distributed multimedia, as even artists who sometimes work in these media work in much broader ways with notions of interactivity.

Whilst these works are incredibly diverse, they also demonstrate a multiplicity of ways to critique the body and representation and address issues of current changes in society and communities brought about by new uses for technologies.”

ANAT is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council its arts funding and advisory body, by the South Australian Government through Arts SA and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.